Do you love cold bean salads as much as we do in the summer? This one is sooo yummy, healthy, and filling! I have been gluten free for 14 years and dairy free for 6 so this fits the bill for both of those intolerances.

This salad dressing is amazing! I came up with it, by default, when we were on vacation last month in Florida. We always make our own salad dressing and love this one. We did not want to buy all the ingredients for it and have them go to waste since we were flying home and couldn’t pack everything.

This is one of our all-time favorite salads and is a huge hit when we take it to a party! We always come home with an empty bowl. My friend, Sherry, is the one who gave me this recipe about 16 years ago so at our house, it is known as the “Sherry salad.” I have passed this recipe on to so many people!

This is one of my favorite meals right now with it being so cold outside. It is a great crock pot meal that can last two to three days and seems to get even tastier the next day. I also love that it is so healthy for us with chicken (we use organic chicken without any antibiotics), organic beans and veggies. You really can’t go wrong with this one!

One of my most re-pinned posts is my Basil Vinaigrette Salad Dressing. It is absolutely delicious and does not contain any chemicals like a lot of store-bought salad dressings do. Ever since we have been eating homemade salad dressing, I have a really hard time eating processed dressings. My palette has become very attune to detecting the chemical taste that a lot of store-bought brands contain.

Do you eat kale? If not, you are truly missing out. It has become one of my favorite vegetables (if not my favorite). I have been eating kale almost every day this year. If I don’t have it one day, my body really craves it.

As we are changing to a whole-foods, plant-based diet (especially after watching Forks Over Knives), I am learning so much about different foods that we normally do not eat. One of those is lentils. According to Wikipedia, “The lentil is an edible pulse/bean. It is a bushy annual plant of the legume family, grown for its lens-shaped seeds. It is about 40 centimetres tall and the seeds grow in pods, usually with two seeds in each.”

Quinoa is an amazing food that has the highest protein content of any grain and provides all 9 essential amino acids, making it a complete protein. It is also gluten-free so great for anyone living a gluten-free lifestyle.